


silent moon's sweet subtleties

by bibliomaniac



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Sort of????
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 19:51:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17107052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibliomaniac/pseuds/bibliomaniac
Summary: There can only be one king. Hank knows this, but he does not know why the king killed his son, nor does he much care. All the explanations in the world won't bring back Cole. Revenge won't either, but maybe it'll at least make him feel better.Tonight the moon will watch as he completes his plan, and as they grow to understand one another.((aka i started talking about an au idea in the hankcon 2018bb discord and then just accidentally wrote out most of it there so i did like ten minutes of editing and plopped it here))





	silent moon's sweet subtleties

**Author's Note:**

> cws for this fic include: talk of past child death (murder by royal guards, ordered by the king); knife mention, brief blood mention, murder / revenge plot, guilt, past accidental manslaughter, some gray morality
> 
> as i said in the summary, i basically told the hankcon 2018bb discord 'hey i have an au idea it goes like this' and then partway through i started writing it with dialogue and all which is why the formatting and flow and everything is so weird. i wrote it in, like, an hour in real time? and did very little editing after...so yeah it's wonky as fuck but lol it was fun to write so i'm putting it here anyway
> 
> also title is random but it's from the song cruel kindness by inside out. shrug

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom ruled by a young but cruel king. His decrees were vicious and absolute, until one day a rumor spread that he became incredibly ill. When he recovered, he became good and kind, everything he wasn’t before, and the kingdom blossomed under his gentle hand.

The commonfolk, the biggest benefactors of the reformed king’s new policies, sing his praises, but there is at least one who has no interest in hearing them: Hank, the blacksmith, whose hatred for the king burns as bright and as hot as the fire of his forge. His son Cole was killed by the wicked king when he got in the way of the royal carriage. An accident, a paltry mistake made by a child, but the king still ordered that his guards kill the boy, and Hank knows that he can never forgive him. 

He works on a plan for three years. The kingdom flourishes, but every time Hank hears of the king, his hatred only festers further. Once his preparations are complete, he casts off his identity as Hank, the blacksmith, and becomes Hank, a low-ranking member of the king's court. It takes him more time still to actually see the king, but when he does, he starts the slow process of becoming close to him.

The king is polite. A little distant and closed-off, but he does seem kind—he cares a lot about the commonfolk, he's nice to his staff, he's nice to _everyone_. But Hank can tell there's something deeper there, darker, perhaps, and besides all that, he _knows_ what he's done to him. 

With time, Hank comes to be perhaps the closest person in the court to the king. He laughs more often around Hank, plays chess with him every evening, takes walks with him under the moon. People wouldn't dare insinuate anything, but they do say he seems happier.

Hank, meanwhile, is confused. He doesn't understand how the man who killed his son could have changed so drastically. He doesn't understand how, in small moments where the king smiles at him, or where he rests a hand briefly on his shoulder, he can almost—just for a second—forget that this is the man he hates more than anything.

And then comes the anniversary of Cole's death. Hank knows he has to fulfill the rest of his plan. He came here for Cole, and even if the king seems different, the one thing he can't change is what he's done. 

When Hank puts a knife to his throat in the library where they play chess, that evening, the king only smiles—sad, but not surprised, and he doesn't make any move to disarm Hank or to try to get away. This only confuses Hank more. "Why aren't you trying to get away?" he asks. "Why aren't you doing _anything,"_ but the king just keeps smiling that same sad smile.

"Hank," he says, "I don't know why you're doing this exactly, but I do know that whatever it is that was done to you, I deserve the punishment you want to give me." 

Hank is more confused than ever, but he soldiers onward, because the only thing he has left at this point is the execution of his plan. There's no other option. "You killed my son," he says. The king doesn't deserve an explanation, but he somehow feels he should give it anyway. "Three years ago. He was just a boy, he didn't do anything, and you killed him." 

The king's smile falters, and his eyes dim. "Oh, Hank," he says, "I am so sorry."

"Sorry," Hank hisses, almost hysterical. "Sorry? You're _sorry?_ If you were going to be sorry, why did you do it in the first place?"

The king looks at him. He doesn't look at the knife, even as it presses further into his neck, just enough to draw a thin line of red along the pale skin. He looks at him, directly into his eyes, and he says, "If I'm going to die tonight anyway, can I tell you a secret?"

"Is now really the time?" Hank asks, still frantic and not understanding how this could all be going so differently than he imagined. 

"Maybe not," the king says, "but I'd like to tell you anyway. You, of all people, I would like to know." 

Hank almost drops the knife—almost, but not quite. "I—yeah, okay, why not."

The king smiles again, lifeless and distant and sad like he was at the beginning, and says, "There can only be one king."

"That's the secret?" Hank asks, incredulous.

"No. The secret is that when the queen bears twins, there can still only be one king. When I was born, the kingdom had an heir. When my brother was born several minutes later, the kingdom just had a problem." 

Hank gapes at the king, barely even able to comprehend what it is he's saying. "What?" 

The king continues like he hadn't even heard the question. "They didn't really know what to do. This kingdom has a long history of wars over succession, of infighting and plotting, and this branch of the monarchy was hard won. It wasn't the right decision, but the decision they made was to hide Niles away. They swore all present to secrecy, walled off an old wing, relocated loyal staff, and while I was raised a prince, Niles was just raised as the skeleton in my parents' closet. I was exploring one day when I was young and found him, and we talked and managed to find out more or less what had happened. We spent hours trying to think of some way to convince our parents to let him free, but I didn't realize that all that time he had already made a decision of his own." 

Hank can't believe this, has _no_ way to parse anything that the king is saying, but he listens anyway. He doesn't know why. Maybe just to hear the end of the story? Maybe just because it's the king's final wish?

Maybe because a part of him wants it to be true. 

"He asked to switch places with me, just for one day, just to see what it was like. I didn't have any objections, of course. We switched clothes, made sure we looked otherwise identical, and he left the wings for the first time in his life. I didn't think anything of it until it was nighttime and he didn't come back. And, well, then my parents came charging in and accused me of trying to escape, told me that 'Connor' had told them everything, said that they'd make _sure_ this time nobody else could get in and I couldn't get out. I obviously told them I was Connor, but they didn't believe me. By the time they left I knew what was going on, but it was still hard to believe."

The king—Connor?—sighs, leaning back against his chair and suddenly looking very tired. The knife is further from his neck, but Hank doesn't reach to move it closer again. He's not sure he could move if he tried. 

"Niles visited me on occasion as we both grew older. For a while I begged him to make things right, to switch again even just for an hour or two, so I could at least just go outside and feel the sun again. He declined, of course, and I stopped asking. Gossip sometimes made its way in the wings, and I'd hear whispers about things the prince was doing. About his coronation, after my parents died, and then about the power he was accumulating. The servants were all scared of him. I was too, frankly. Every time he visited he looked less and less like the person I saw in the mirror. But I didn't do anything, because I was a coward, not until I heard that he was planning on starting a war in the neighboring kingdom for no other reason than to get access to their natural resources. So many lives lost for _nothing_. I couldn't let it happen."

Hank takes a deep breath, then another, aware they sound more like he's gasping for air than anything, but not able to control that or anything else about this. "So? What—what did you do?"

Connor closes his eyes, a pained expression flashing across his face. "He visited not long after. I tried to reason with him, begged him not to continue with his plans, but he was resolute. I was so _angry_ with him, and I just wanted him to _understand_ , and—and then he slapped me, told me I should know my place. And. I shoved him back, and we fought, and at some point, when he hit the ground...I just...kept hitting."

His lips are pressed together in a harsh line. He too takes a breath, holds it, holds it, releases with a puff of air. "He hit his head, when he fell. I didn't realize. I didn't...even try to help, I was so angry, and—when I—when I realized—" he bows his head. "He was gone. And I couldn't...do anything about it. And so I had to make a decision too. I probably made the wrong one also, really. I changed our clothes, I cleaned his face, I put him in my old room, and—then I pretended I was him. Connor, again. I released the servants in the wing and feigned illness, and when I began to change the policies Niles had set, everyone figured the sickness was responsible for my change in heart. That I had found God or gone odd in the head or something. I didn't tell anyone otherwise."

Hank doesn't say anything. He doesn't know what he could say, here, to all this, if there's anything that could be said at all. Connor slowly looks at him again, and there are no sad smiles or pained expressions or anything that might betray emotion. He just looks defeated, and it is with an almost mechanical precision that he, just as slowly, reaches out to Hank, to Hank's hand, until he's grasping it. 

"Your Majesty," Hank starts, almost more shocked by this than anything else—well, not really—but Connor's hand continues, and in a sudden burst of movement, he pulls Hank's hand forward until the knife he's still grasping is pressed tight up against his neck.

Hank blinks at him, mouth falling open. "Your Majes—" 

"Like I said at the beginning," Connor says, eyes boring into Hank's, dull and flinty and almost completely unfamiliar. He presses Hank's hand and the knife even closer. "I deserve the punishment you want to give me. I let Niles destroy so many people's lives, including yours. I killed my brother and assumed his identity. Everything that's happened is in some way _my fault._ " His grip tightens painfully, and Hank breaks eye contact for just a moment to look down at their hands, then back up at Connor. "So do it, Hank."

Hank's mouth opens and closes. Do what? Kill him? That had been what he was going to do all along, right? To kill the man responsible for Cole's death. To kill the king. 

But.

But this isn't the king, is it, not the one Hank had been chasing all this time. The king who killed Cole is already dead—has been for a while, it sounds like. And this king...yeah, maybe he accidentally switched places with Niles, maybe he even killed him, but...he's also the king Hank knows who plays chess and goes on walks and loves flowers and dogs, who is kind to his people and kind to Hank. Who always looks lonely, and lost, but smiles at Hank like he holds the North Star in his hands.

Hank wrenches his hand from Connor's grip and draws his hand back, and Connor closes his eyes again, lips trembling slightly like he's afraid or trying to keep from crying.

Hank drops the knife with a clatter, and Connor's eyes fly open just in time to see Hank reaching forward to cuff his head. 

"What?" Connor asks, eyes wide. "What was that?"

"You said you deserved whatever punishment I wanted to give you, right?" Hank shrugs, feeling awkward and oversized and strange, but—not wrong. This isn't wrong, he's pretty sure. "That's the one I went with. If you want to make some kind of royal decree that I get all your desserts for a month that'd be fine too."

"What?" Connor repeats, staring dumbly.

"Dumbass," Hank says, and he tries not to let his voice go rich with helpless affection. He doesn't think he does a very good job. "There might only be one king, and—let's be clear here, I fucking hate that guy. He killed my son and I'm not going to forgive him for it."

Connor frowns, tilting his head.

"That one's dead, though. And now there's just one Connor, and. That guy...I...don't hate. Even if he tried to get me to kill him. Even if—he's done some things he regrets. So since there's just one of him, I'd like to keep him around." Hank gulps, eyes ducking to his shoes. "If he wants."

Connor looks like he doesn't quite know what to do with that, drawing back and blinking rapidly, and it doesn't take long for Hank to notice that he is crying now, just a little bit. But then he's smiling too, tremulous but warm in that way that only Hank gets to see. "I think he'd like that very much, yes."

Hank's heart is beating too fast. It could be the adrenaline, but it's probably not. It's probably just that smile. "Well, then. What d'you say me and Connor finish that game of chess? Your Majesty," he amends hurriedly, just in case.

"I suppose I would say that you should stick to my name, because I like hearing it from you," Connor says, and Hank can feel his cheeks heat. "And that I'm going to win."

"Pretty sure I asked Connor about that chess thing, not a cocky asshole," Hank says, mostly out of principle, mostly to keep Connor from being able to hear how his heart pounds. "White or black?" 

"Black. I'll give you the handicap."

"How generous," Hank mumbles, starting to set up. 

"And Hank?" 

"Yeah?" 

Connor's smile is soft now, and as bright as the moon outside.

"Thank you."

"...Yeah."

And time will pass, ending that night and the nights after it, and with it will end other things: Connor will eventually disclose his secret to everyone, and a court will absolve him of the death of Niles, and eventually he too will think of it less. It will end the tradition of secrecy in the kingdom, and of fighting over the heir—Connor puts into place several laws preventing such a thing as what happened to him from ever happening again. 

It will start other things, also. It will start Hank and Connor slowly allowing themselves to be drawn to one another, clumsily stumbling in one another's orbit until they finally confess that they love each other (a fact which everybody else already knew). It will start the first of many kisses in that library and in the garden and in their room. It will start their lives together as a married couple, and everything that comes after that. 

But even as time passes, this story will not—even if they did not tell it to anyone, even if it remained between them. This story will stay here, small and quiet and secret and lit by the night's moon.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for taking the time to read this silly thing! i'm mostly on twitter at [@boringbibs](https://twitter.com/boringbibs) these days if you wanna catch up there and watch me retweet a ridiculous amount of hankcon fanart and also other shit sometimes. my tumblr is [anuninterestingperson](http://anuninterestingperson.tumblr.com) though i've been on there less since the purge, but my account's still open haha!


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